The Region - News from Sept. 3, 1987

Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner refused an offer to meet privately with with Glendale Court Commissioner Daniel F. Calabro, whom Reiner chastised for using the word “nigger” in court. “I don’t think there is any particular reason as to why,” said Schuyler Sprowles, director of public affairs for Reiner. “He respectfully declined the offer at this time. Reiner has ordered prosecutors to refuse hearing cases in Calabro’s court, effectively barring the commissioner from hearing criminal matters. Calabro used the epithet during a June hearing involving a white Glendale man who assaulted a black Burbank man and called him “nigger.” Court transcripts quote Calabro as asking: “Another nigger case? Another one where this nigger business came up? We’re not passed all that yet? I thought we were passed all that.” Calabro contends that he used the word as a description of the case before him and not as a reference to a particular person or group of people.